The Palace of Versailles is one of the most visited Royal residences in the World.
The extravagant palace offers insight into French history and the flashy lives of the former French Kings.
After the Eiffel Tower, it is France’s most famous attraction and gets more than 10 million tourists every year.
Palace of Versailles is 20 Kms (12 Miles) outside of Paris, and in this article, we share how you can get there.
Top Palace of Versailles Tickets
# Half-day self-guided bus tour
# Palace of Versailles with Audio Guide and Transfers
# Guided full-day bus tour to Versailles
Table of contents
Where is the Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles is in the city of Versailles in the Ile-de-France region of Northern France.
It is 20 Kms (12 Miles) West-Southwest of Paris.
Address: Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles, France. Get Directions
Paris to Versailles: travel duration
Most of the tourists stay in Paris and take a day trip to Palace of Versailles.
If you take a train from Paris to Versailles, the traveling time will be around 50 minutes.
You must walk the last one kilometer (0.6 Miles) from the station, which means the time taken to your destination in Versailles will be one hour.
If you book a tour bus from Paris to Versailles Palace, it will take an hour.
However, if you take a taxi to Versailles, you can reach in approximately 45 minutes.
With approximately two hours lost in travel, visitors usually spend five to six hours at the Versailles Estate, consisting of the Palace, the Gardens, and Queen Marie-Antoinette’s domain.
Of these five to six hours, at least two to three hours are spent inside the Palace of Versailles.
Bus tours from Paris to Versailles
Hundreds of tour buses travel from Paris to Versailles every day, carrying thousands of tourists from all over the World.
All Palace of Versailles bus tours from Paris, come with ‘Skip The Line’ tickets, which means, you don’t need to stand in the line.
The ‘Skip The Line’ ticket saves a lot of waiting time – sometimes even up to 3 hours.
These bus tours are ideal for getting to the Palace of Versailles if you travel with family, kids, or seniors.
We highly recommend bus tours to Versailles for multiple reasons –
1. You don’t have to worry about transportation to Versailles and back
2. You travel in luxury and comfort
3. You won’t have to queue up for hours to get into the Palace of Versailles
4. A greeter or a expert human guide is always there with you to help
You can choose from three bus tours to Versailles –
Half-day self-guided bus tour
This is a four-hour tour where an air-conditioned bus takes you from Paris to the gates of Palace of Versailles.
You can choose from two starting times – 8.15 am and 1.15 pm.
Your tickets are already booked so you skip the long lines and enjoy a self-guided audio tour of the Palace.
The audio guide, available in 11 languages, helps better understand rooms such as the State apartments, Hall of Mirrors, Royal Chapel, etc.
*On the tour booking page select ‘half-day’
Ticket Prices
Adult Ticket (18 to 65 years): €85
Child Ticket (4 to 17 years): €80
Senior Ticket (66+ years): €85
Infant Ticket (up to 3 years): Free
Palace of Versailles with Audio Guide and Tranfers
Skip the long ticket lines to the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, and discover them at your own pace with an audio-guided tour.
Enjoy a choice of departure points for your bus transfer from central Paris.
Enjoy a comfortable roundtrip journey from Paris to the palace, visit the glittering Hall of Mirrors, and relax in the Palace Gardens.
Upon arrival at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed monument, a trilingual host will first escort you to the château.
After 7 to 8 hours, the air-conditioned coach drops you back in Paris.
*On the tour booking page select your preferred meeting point.
Ticket Prices
Adult Ticket (18+ years): €75
Child Ticket (4 to 17 years): €59
Infant Ticket (up to 3 years): Free entry
Guided full-day bus tour to Versailles
This 8-hour guided tour of Palace of Versailles starts from Paris at 8.15 am.
Your guided tour starts in Paris itself when you get picked up from your hotel.
Once at the Palace, you skip the lines and enter for a guided tour within its majestic walls.
After you have seen the State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors, the King and Queen’s Bedroom, etc, you take a leisurely walk in the beautiful gardens.
After a lunch break at La Petite Venise, a restaurant close to the Grand Canal, you get to spend more time exploring the Estate.
Ticket Cost: €2100 per group up to 8 members
Guided tours by train
From Paris to the Palace of Versailles, there are two guided tours by train.
Half-day guided tour by train
This four-hour guided tour of Versailles Palace starts at 9 am from the French capital.
An accredited local English-speaking guide escorts you on a round-trip between central Paris and Versailles by RER train.
You enter the Versailles Palace without waiting anywhere and then also explore the Gardens of Versailles.
Everybody gets a headset so that they can hear the guide even in a crowd.
Ticket Prices
Adult Ticket (18+ years): €90
Youth Ticket (11 to 17 years): €73
Child Ticket (4 to 10 years): €73
Infant Ticket (up to 3 years): Free
Recommended Reading: History of Palace of Versailles
Self-guided: Paris to Versailles by train
Some tourists prefer taking a train to Versailles themselves –
- Backpackers on a budget holiday
- Tourists who have been to Paris before
- Groups of adult travelers who want to figure their way out
Taking a train from Paris to Versailles is the cheapest way to get there.
There are two kinds of trains in Paris.
The Metro lines serve the city of Paris, while the RER trains serve Paris and its suburbs.
Since the Palace of Versailles is in the suburbs, you need to board an RER train.
An alphabet denotes all RER lines, and RER C is the most comfortable train to Versailles Palace.
RER C is also known as the Yellow Line and serves the western half of the Parisian suburbs.
RER C line’s route map:
Here is a step by step guide to going from Paris to Versailles by train –
Reach an RER Station
Reach any of the Metro/RER stations mentioned on the RER C route map shown above.
Popular RER C line stations in city center include St-Michel (near Notre Dame), Musée d’Orsay, Invalides, Pont de l’Alma, and Champs de Mars – Tour Eiffel.
Boarding an RER C train from Central Paris is also a good option. Locals refer to the Central Station as Gare Du Nord.
RER Stations are marked with a blue sign – RER surrounded by a circle.
If you are not sure, fire up your Google Map and identify which station is near you.
Image: Tourbytransit.com
Buy tickets to Versailles
Once you are at the station, look for the Green ticket kiosks and purchase return tickets to ‘Versailles Château Rive Gauche.’
The total cost of a trip to Versailles and back is approximately 8 Euros per person from Paris.
There are three different train stations with ‘Versailles’ in the name – Versailles Rive Gauche, Versailles Chantier, and Versailles Rive Droite.
You must book your RER ticket for Versailles Rive Gauche because it is the closest train station to the Palace of Versailles.
If you are not comfortable handling the ticket kiosks, look for the ticket window counters (pic below) available at all the stations.
Keep your tickets in a safe place
For each person, you will get two tickets, which will look like this –
Travelers need their ticket to exit after arriving at Versailles Rive Gauche, so keep it safe.
Image: Parisbytrain.com
Keep the return ticket safely inside your wallet/bag. Many tourists are known to misplace their return tickets.
Find the display screens
To find the RER C platform from where the train to ‘Versailles Château Rive Gauche’ will pass through, look for display screens inside the station.
On the screens, look for trains heading to Versailles Chateau RG (RG = Rive Gauche), which is where you must get down.
Once you find your train, look for two critical pieces of information –
Platform: The platform from where the train will leave. In this case, it is ‘A’
Time: The time when the train will leave the platform. In this case, it is 2.09 pm.
Find your platform and train
Now, you need to follow the signs to the RER C platform from where the train to ‘Versailles Château Rive Gauche’ will pass through.
All RER train platforms mark which line you’re on and which direction the train is going.
On the platform, you will see yet another display screen.
The topmost train on the screen is the one already at the station or arriving next.
Not all RER trains arriving at this platform go to Versailles, so board the train ONLY when your train is listed ‘first’ on the display board.
Board the train to Versailles
When the train arrives, the doors won’t open automatically.
It would be best to open the door by pressing the green or silver button on the door. If you don’t, someone on the train can also open the door.
Once on the train, look up. If you are lucky, you may have boarded the train with a ceiling decorated like the Palace at Versailles.
Get down at Versailles Château Rive Gauche
After a 50-minute train ride, you will reach Versailles Château Rive Gauche, the station where you must get down.
It is the last station on the line, which means you don’t need to keep track of the stations.
Please keep your tickets with you because you will need them to exit the station.
If you follow all the other tourists getting down from the train, you will reach the Palace of Versailles after a ten-minute walk. Get Directions
Before you turn around the corner, turn back and look at the Versailles Château Rive Gauche station.
After your Versailles Palace tour, you must get back here to board the train to Paris.
The return to Paris
Since you already have the return tickets to Paris, get onto any train going in the direction of the French capital.
All trains passing through this station go to Paris.
The last train from Versailles Rive Gauche railway station leaves at 11.55 pm.
If you find all of this travel information intimidating, check out the Palace of Versailles by train package, where an expert guide takes you to Versailles by train.
Cost of Paris to Versailles train tickets
A trip from Paris to Versailles and back by train will cost you approximately €8 per person.
At this price, trains are the cheapest way to reach the Palace of Versailles.
Did you know that Hall of Mirrors in Palace of Versailles is highly decorated room with 357 mirrors?
Driving from Paris to Versailles
All the top car rental companies such as Avis, Hertz, Dollar, Europcar, etc. are available in Paris.
For approximately €200, you can rent out a mid-sized car for your trip from Paris to Versailles.
Parking at Versailles Estate is no issue, for there are numerous car parks.
A Versailles tour from Paris takes you on a scenic route, and a private car means you get to stop and explore on the way.
However, Paris traffic and the high cost of renting out a car for a day weigh down this option.
Recommended Reading: Trivia about Palace of Versailles
Paris to Versailles by Uber
If you want the luxury of private transport to Versailles but don’t want to navigate the traffic yourself, you can hire an Uber.
Traveling the 20 Kms (12 miles) distance to Versailles in an Uber costs upwards of €40.
The ride lasts 45 minutes or so, depending on the time of the day and the traffic.
If you hire an Uber to return as well, your transportation cost alone will be €80 to €120.
That’s why we don’t recommend you take an Uber to Versailles.
Instead, it makes sense to book the half-day guided tour by train, which costs €90.
Sources
# Parisdiscoveryguide.com
# Traveltriangle.com
# Versailles-palace-tickets.com
# Paristoversailles.com
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